Like apparently cheap energy makes our lives better but what if we have near limitless cheap eenrgy? How would that improve our lives?
What if we have nuclear fusion power now?
r/whatif
Like apparently cheap energy makes our lives better but what if we have near limitless cheap eenrgy? How would that improve our lives?
Comments
We do
Look at Star Trek. They had almost limitless free energy, but limited network data transfer.
I think you’re referring to cold fusion, or a type of reaction that provides unlimited easy to capture energy.
If that were to happen our small power transportation would be limited by current battery technology. It would advance more quickly than it ever has but we would still be a decade from really utilizing the limitless energy produced.
Sooo, Nuclear Fusion theoretically provides around 4x the energy of nuclear fission. But it’s still incredibly unstable (roughly 5-10 seconds of power output). What we do already have is nuclear fission, which has its own issues, but is far and away the safest form of power production. However, one of the biggest issues with fission is the high start-up cost and clearing regulatory hurdles. Fusion will inevitably have those same issues. One of the big drivers of nuclear fission plants is the drastically increasing power demands of AI and crypto mining platforms. So I’d imagine full scale nuclear fusion powering the world would mean that computing has gotten so advanced that humans have been replaced in most sectors of industry, with android/AI replacements
They’ll charge us for it somehow.
Nuclear fusion here on Earth isn’t cheap, clean or sustainable. The neutrons and other particles irradiate the chamber it’s in, so we have to keep throwing it away.
Better to use nuclear fusion power directly – underground explosions to make harbours and canals and waste repositories and mines. That is the only way that the radiation can be safely contained.
It would be a big deal or even a game changer, depending on some factors.
First, it would at the very least be a big deal, since fusion would provide large amounts of stable power. Power that does not depend on the elements. Solar does not produce power at night. Wind does not produce power when there’s no wind blowing. Hydroelectric dams require rivers. Storing huge amounts of power is an unsolved problem to this day, and this has been the achilles heel of renewables thus far.
Fusion does not have that problem. It produces power always, just like fission. Unlike fission, meltdowns are not a thing, irradiated waste is far easier to deal with (since it does not stay irradiated for long, thus drastically reducing storage concerns), and fuel is much easier to get.
Now, if the transportation in the country that uses fusion power is based on electricity to a large degree (that is, many cars being electric cars), it becomes a real game changer, because then, transportation does not depend nearly as much on oil as it used to. Those electric cars all need power. Fusion provides plenty of power, and is produced locally. No reliance on oil from other countries to run your cars. Geopolitically, this would be a huge deal.
This already exists. the technology is simply in its infancy and is not developed well enough to be able to be utilized in a way that can be generating power in a massive scale that would be sufficient enough for a large scale use like a city or an army base for example
Then how do you control the populations , we probably already do have it.
Cheap energy doesn’t help if it isn’t also green AF
Assuming both were true for any source of energy, it would allow us to stop damaging the planet for fuel and would give us the energy needed to filter the water and air…
But ecosystems are collapsing everywhere.
It’s safe to say I’m no expert. It’s likewise safe to say I am not optimistic.
With limitless clean energy, we could power AI that would change the world as we know it. The power of AI is exponential, which would mean revolutionary changes happening monthly.
Everything would be cheaper. The energy needed to farm and manufacture things is a significant part of the cost.
Mr Fusion.
We will have 3-4 more asshole billionaires while we pay 100 dollars less for things each month. So trade 100 dollars monthly for 3-4 more dicks in our butt type of deal?
We have nuclear fusion, it’s called the sun or a hydrogen bomb
It wouldn’t, because everything in our society is about profit for a few individuals, not making our lives better.
The first fusion generator is coming on line in 2027, if memory serves. Built for Microsoft by a company called Hellion Fusion. I believe an American aluminum smelter has contracted for one also. It is probably the coolest thing no one has ever heard about.
A new way to make hot water. Sweet.
https://preview.redd.it/59722uf8rpre1.jpeg?width=1100&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=efb77edfe30268802c2b9c080525b819996a27ee
Well with use a hydraulic lines and out and with electricity being free the cost of everything being produced would go to basically nothing and that way itself would fix the economy.